Yes, Sir
by BrokenHearts159
Summary: this is actually based off the movie iron man. I just couldn't find it in the movie catgory I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!
1. Chapter 1

Yes, Sir

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!

Pain spread through my chest. I balanced the stack of dirty dishes in my left hand and clutched my arc with my right hand, the car battery resting on the counter beside me.

"Amber?" The voice sounded behind me and it startled me. I jumped in surprise, forgetting the stack of dishes in my hand. The song of fallen dishes crackled through the mansion. I groaned in frustration and bent over to pick up the broken plates and bowls. Pepper Potts walked in front of me to help, her long ginger hair laying gently on her shoulders.

"I'm so, so sorry, Mrs. Potts." I apologized.

"No need to apologize." Pepper said.

"I must be the worst assistant in all of assistant history." I mumbled. We finished picking up the dishes and threw them into the trash.

"Have you seen Mr. Stark around?" Pepper asked me.

"No, Ma'am." I answered. "Not since he gave me this job."

"He must be down in the garage then. Gotta do something first. Ready for your first assignment?" Pepper asked me.

"Yes, Ma'am. Of course."


	2. Chapter 2

"Tony?" A female voice carried through out the house. "Tony?" I walked into one of the living room's, the light from the glass windows that looked over the ocean. A blonde slender chick wearing one of Tony's buttoned up shirts looked at a control panel beside a door and reached out a hand to touch it.

"Access not granted." The AI's voice said. She jumped back in shock.

"That's Jarvis." I spoke up. "He runs the house." She turned around and faced me. "I got your clothes here. They've been dried cleaned and pressed. There's a limo out front waiting for you. It will take you anywhere you would like to go." The chick cupped her hands together and walked towards me.

"You must be Pepper Potts." She said. I shook my head.

"No, that would be Pepper Potts." I said, nodding my head over my left shoulder to where Pepper stood behind me. "I'm Amber Pricing."

"Aw, yes. Amber Pricing." The chick awed. "The fourteen year old girl who Tony Stark saved in Afghanistan. And he decides to make you assistant after he already has one and he starts you off by picking up his dry cleaning."

"I do anything that Mr. Stark asks of me." I said in my defense. "And that includes taking out the trash. Would that be all?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Take notes." Pepper ordered, handing me a clipboard.

"Yes, Ma'am." I followed her down the steps to the garage where the blaring music was coming from. As Pepper approached the door, a touched screen keypad appeared in the glass. She typed into the password and entered the garage to where Tony was on the ground beside a car, rebuilding the engine.

"Turn the music down." Pepper said to me. I went over to the counter and turned the music down.

"Please don't turn me music down." Tony said with his back to us.

"Sorry, Sir." I said, stepping back up to Pepper's side.

"You are suppose to half way across the world right now." Pepper said.

"How she take it?" Tony asked. I looked at Pepper wanting her to answer the question but she looked back at me.

"She took it just fine." I said. "Sir."

"Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?" Tony said, looking at the engine parts around him. I looked at the clipboard for notes.

"Mr. Stark, your flight was scheduled an hour and a half ago." I said.

"That's funny." Tony said. "I thought it was my plane so I would expect it to wait until I got there."

"Tony, I need to talk to you about a few things." Pepper said, taking the clipboard away from me. I crossed my arms behind my back. Tony stood up and turned to face us.

"I mean, doesn't that beat the main purpose of having your own plane." Tony said. "Doesn't that make sense, Amber?"

"I – I- I suppose it does, Sir." I stuttered.

"It's not your plane if it departs before you arrive." Tony added as he sat down on a tire. Pepper handed the clipboard back to me. I looked down the notes, wondering which one to start off with.  
"Sir, Larry called. He has a buyer for the 1965 car engine. Do you want it?"

"What do you think?"

"Um, well. . ." Tony cut me off.

"You have worked with engines before, have you not?"

"I have, Sir. My father and I built an engine together before. . ." My voice trailed off.

"What kind of engine?"

"It was a 1967 engine. For a Chevy Impala. 327 4 barrel. 275 horse power."

"You built that when you were-"

"Ten, Sir."

"All by yourself?"

"With the help of my father."

"You have to help me out with this engine sometime."

"Of course, Sir."

"So about the engine."

"Well," I looked at the clipboard for the description of the engine. "It's incredibly overpriced."  
"Buy it. Store it." Tony said, getting up to walk to the other side of the garage.

"Yes, Sir." I marked it down on the clipboard. I followed him as I read off the next thing. "The MIT-"

"Is in July." Tony finished the sentence for me. "Please don't remind me."

"Yes, Sir. I'm going to mark down yes." I flipped through the papers till I found the contract. "Sir, I need you to sign this before you get on your plane."

"Why are you trying to get rid of me for, Pepper?" Tony asked as he took the pen from me. "You got plans?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Pepper said. "I'm allowed to have plans on my birthday."

"It's your birthday?"

"Yes, it is."

"Already?" Tony signed the contract.

"Yeah, isn't that strange. It's the same day as last year."

"Hmm." I took the pen from Tony as Pepper turned to leave. "You got any plans?"

"No, Sir."

"When's your birthday?"

"In July, Sir."

"What day?"

"27th, Sir."

"Same here."

"Lucky me then." I smiled at him.

"Have I told you yet that you're doing an excellent job so far?"

"No, Sir. You haven't."

"Well, I believe I just did."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark."

"Your welcome, Mrs. Pricing and since you don't have any plans, you can join me on this plane flight."

"Yes, Sir." I said as I followed him out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

*Flashback*

"Who's the girl in the corner?" The newbie asked.

"Her name's Amber." The guy answered. "She got hit by the same bomb as you did. She doesn't talk very much. But she is very, very smart." I hugged my car battery closer to me.

"She seems young."

"Fourteen."

"Why is she here?"

"She doesn't know. Four years ago, she came here with her parents and her little sister. I don't know the full details. But she was kidnapped along with her sister. Her sister was placed somewhere and if she's good she's allowed to see her sister like once a year. So she was on her way back from seeing her sister this year when whatever happened out there and she tried to make a run for it with a blindfold on. But I guess she ran the wrong way and boom. I fixed her up first. Then, she helped me with you. She hardly ever sleeps. I can't remember the last time she slept. I told her she has to sleep are her hearts going to go out before that battery."

"I thought she doesn't talk much."

"She does on occasion." Metal creaked and a man shouted something in a foreign language that I surprising knew. I stood up and walked over to the two men. The metal door opened and a group of Afghan people walked in. The man started to speak and I listened closely to what he was saying. When he was done, he nodded to the old guy to translate.

"He says, 'Welcome, Tony Stark.' I didn't understand the rest."

"The biggest mass murderer in American history. It's an honor." I finished for him. Gee, that makes me feel safe. Being locked up in a cave with a mass murderer. If he wasn't going to kill me then the Afghan people would. The leader unrolled a piece of paper and handed it to me. I reluctantly took it from him as he spoke again. It was a rocket weapon. Stark Industries was written on the side.

"He says he wants you to make this for him." I translated.

"Tell him I refuse." Tony said. I translated and the leader shot out a hand and grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me forward. I let out a painful yell but I didn't dare touch him. He started yelling in my face and I started speaking, yelling back at him.

"Fyn ok ek sal dit doen!" I yelled to end the conversation. He let go of my hair and pushed me hard as he turned to leave.

"What he say?" Tony asked.

"Nothing." I muttered as I headed back to my dark corner. "Just build the damn thing." I sat down and hugged my car battery. "Please."


	5. Chapter 5

*Flashback*

I sat back as I watched Tony take apart one of his weapons.

"You should do some planning?" The old guy said.

"Planning takes time." I said. "We don't have time." Tony pulled something from inside the weapon and stood up. It looked like two wheels on a stick. He took something from the middle and tossed the gear behind him. He held up a thin metal. I looked closely at that.

"What's that?" Guy asked.

"That's palladium." I answered. "Estimation about 1.5 grams." Tony looked at me with shock in his eyes. "Told you, I'm not stupid."

"We need one point six to make this work."

"Melt it." I suggested. "It will expand and there should be just enough to form the ring." I took the metal from Tony and went over to the kiln. I placed it in a small cup and held it over the fire. After about five minutes, the palladium was now a small pool of silver liquid. It reminded me of the unicorn blood from Harry Potter.

"Steady." Tony said as he carried my car battery with me to the table.

"I have steady hands." I said. "How do you think you're still alive?" I carefully poured the liquid into the ring mold. "Perfect." It only took a few minutes to cool and get hard. Tony picked the ring up with tongs and placed it onto a lens. I went over to a bucket of wires and grabbed some. I sat on the table and began to work with them, making a coil out of them, piecing the right ones together. Tony was at another table working on some metal. After I was done, I went over to Tony and handed him the wires. He took them from me and I stepped back to let him work. A few hours later, a blue light shined in front of Tony. Me and Yinsen walked over to him. "That doesn't look like a Jericho Missile."

"That's because it's an arc reactor." Tony said. "I have a bigger one in my factory back at home."

"What could it generate?" Yinsen asked.

"If my math is right, which it usually is, something 3 joules per second."

"That can run down you heart in 50 lifetimes." Yinsen said.

"Yeah." I said. "Or something big for fifteen minutes." Tony grabbed papers and placed them on the table in front of us. There were drawings on them and piece them together, they formed a robot like thing.

"What is it?" Yinsen asked.

"Our ticket out of here." Tony said.

"Impressive." I said.


	6. Chapter 6

*Flashback*

"How long do I have?" I asked, holding the arc reactor in my hands.

"About fifteen seconds before I go into shock." Tony said. I sighed as he laid down in his bed and took his shirt off. I almost got distracted by his flawless chest and stomach. I shook my head to clear it. I handed the reactor to Yinsen to hold onto. I gripped the old reactor that was in Tony's chest.

"Ok, one, two, three." I yanked the reactor out of Tony's chest, carefully with all the wires. One wire to the skin could send him into shock right now. Five seconds gone. Not bad. I had to admit, that's impressive. I tossed the old reactor to Yinsen and he tossed me the new one. I caught it with both hands and shoved it into Tony's chest. It fit perfectly, the wires in his body connecting to the reactor. I stepped back with three seconds to spare. "Not bad." I said, staring at the blue light in the middle of Tony's chest.

"So, what do you do for fun around here?" Tony asked with a smile.

"Backgammon." Yinsen answered. Tony followed him to the table to play as I retreated to my corner.

"You still haven't told me where you're from, Amber." Tony called to me.

"Boston." I answered.

"Masschutes?"

"No, China." I said sarcastically.

"Got any family?" My eyes clouded with sadness.

"I did." I said. "Now, I'm all alone."

"I will see mine after I get out of here." Yinsen said. "You?"

"None." Tony answered.

"A man with everything but yet nothing." I muttered from the darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

*Flashback*

There was a knock on the metal door and an angry Afghan voice. I snapped my head up from my work. Uh-oh. Tony and Yinsen stopped working too. The door opened and Leader walked in along with his group of people. We placed our hands behind our heads. Leader stepped up in front of me.

"Why have you failed me?" Leader asked in his language.

"We're working." I said back.

"I let you live." He said. "Four years, I let you live. Even after you tried to escape. This is how you repay me?"

"You killed my family besides this missile is very complex. He's trying very hard." I said, nodding my head to the right to Tony. Leader at me then back at his people.

"On her knees." He said. The people parted and pushed forward a little girl. No. Annemarie. The men roughly pushed her down on the ground and pointed a gun to her head.

"No, please." I pleaded. "We'll work faster. I swear. Please just please leave her out of this." Annemarie looked up at me with pleading eyes, her blue eyes pouring tears which were the only things that were cleaning the dirt off her face.

"You think I'm a fool? Didn't I tell you that if you didn't make him build the missile that she was going to get hurt." Leader said walking over to the kiln. "I'll get the truth."  
"We're working." I said hastily. "All three of us." Leader turned around with an iron rod in hand, the end of it glowing red and orange.

"Open her mouth." Leader said.

"No!" I screamed in English as I rushed forward but Yinsen grabbed me and held me back. "Let me go!"

"You rush forward you get yourself killed." Yinsen said.

"I don't care!" I said. "I don't care."

"What does he want?" Tony asked.

"You think I'm a fool?" Leader said in Afghan as he grabbed my little sister by the her dirty dirty blonde hair. "What's going on? Tell me the truth."

"He's building you Jericho." I said in Afghan.

"Tell me the truth!"

"He's building you Jericho!" Yinsen and I yelled together.

"Tell me the truth!"

"He's building you Jericho!" Leader brought the rod closer to Annemarie's mouth and she whimpered in fear.

"Amber," She whispered my name ever so softly and it broke my heart.

"It's ok, Annemarie, It's ok." I said in English and in Afghan, "Please, I'm telling you the truth." Leader looked from me to Annemarie and back again. "Please."

"Shoot her." Leader ordered.

"No!" I screamed. "No! Listen, if you kill her you kill your leverage against me. You kill her I have no reason to work for you. Please, please, please, don't kill her."

"I still do have leverage." Leader said. "I have your pride. You wouldn't want to die in a place like this. That's my leverage. Shoot her." The gunshot sounded as I screamed. I screamed for pain, for sorrow. I watched the life fade from Annemarie's blue eyes. I watched as her body fell forward lifelessly. I felt like it was me that was shot. There was a hole in my stomach. I slump to the floor sobbing. The last of my family now dead. "You have until tomorrow to build my missile." And with that, the people walked out of the cave, dragging my little sister's body with them.


	8. Chapter 8

*Flashback*

I helped Tony into the suit. I handed him black leather gloves to protect his hands. After Yinsen and I got him settled into the suit, I climbed onto Tony's back. Yinsen covered me with an iron cover. I wrapped my arms around Tony's neck and my legs around his waist. Yinsen also covered them up with scrap metal.

"Say it again." Yinsen said.  
"Forty-one steps straight ahead." I recited through the darkness of the metal. "Sixteen steps to the left. Thirty three steps turn right."Just as a finished, an unfamiliar voice sounded through the door.

"Say something." Tony ordered Yinsen.

"I don't know. He's speaking Hungarian. I don't know Hungarian."

"Amber, what's he saying?" Tony asked me.

"Uh, um," I tried hard to think. I haven't heard Hungarian in ages. "Uh, 'Yinsen, stop working. Yinsen. Stop.' Uh, 'Stop or I'll shoot.'"

"Say something back."

"I can't speak. I just listen."

"Say something." Tony hissed. I spoke the first thing that came to my mind not even knowing what I said. There were clicks on the metal door as the locks were being unlocked and then there was. . . BOOM! I felt the force of the debris and wind through the holes of the metal.

"How did my bomb work?" I asked.

"Oh, my goodness." Yinsen awed.

"You're smart." Tony said.

"It's all chemistry really." I said. "With some physics of course."

"Buttoned me up." Tony said.

"They're coming." Yinsen said hastily.

"I feel pretty." Tony said.

"We need more time." Yinsen said. "I'm going to go buy you sometime."

"Stick to the plan." Tony yelled. "Stick to the plan."

"What's happening?" I asked.

"Yinsen's committing suicide." Tony said.

"Lovely." Then there was movement. Whoa. "Kay tell me when you're out the door and I'll start counting."

"Go." Tony said. One. . . Two. . . I concentrated on the motion of Tony's legs and counted. Three. . . Four. . . Five. . . Gunshots fired and I could feel them bounce off the metal. Oh my god, oh my god. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. I'll let Tony worry about the bullets. I have steps to count. Thirty-three. . . thirty-four. . . thirty-five. . .

"Turn left, Tony." I yelled.

"Go." Tony said and I started recounting. I got to thirteen when we stopped.

"Why we stop?" I asked.

"My arm's stuck in the wall." Tony said.  
"Well get it out."

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Tony asked. "Got it. Go."

"Right."

"Yinsen!" Tony yelled.  
"He's still alive?" I questioned.

"Come on, we got to go." Tony said. "Come on, we got to stick to our plan."

"This was always the plan." Yinsen said.

"You got to go see your family. Get up."

"My family's dead. I'm going to go see them now. It's ok. I want this." Then it was silent.

"He's dead isn't he?" I asked.

"Yeah." Tony answered and we started to move again. Gunshots fired again and I could feel them vibrate through the metal as Tony just stood there. Then the gunshots stopped. "My turn." With a quiver of the suit, we shot upward.

"What the hell is happening?" I asked.

"We're flying." Tony answered.

"How the hell did you make this thing fly?"

"I'm Tony Stark."

"Am I suppose to know who that is?" Before Tony could answer, I felt us descending. "What's happening?"

"We're falling."

"I can feel that!" I screamed waiting for the crash of the ground. Bam! I groaned in pain. At least, it was sand we hit.

"Not bad." Tony said.

"Yeah." I muttered. "Now get off me."


	9. Chapter 9

*Flashback*

I walked, more like trudged, through the sand beside Tony. My left hand was carrying the same old car battery that surprisingly made it through the ruckus. The sun beat on my back like a blacksmith beating on iron. A sound sounded behind us and we turned and looked up in the sky. Two helicopters flew over my head. Oh my god. Oh my god. For four years, I've been locked up in a cave and joy just over took me when I knew that I was rescued. I watched as Tony jumped up and down, yelling at the helicopters. We laughed in joy as one of them landed in front of us. Tony fell to his knees in exhaustion as men exit the helicopter and ran towards us.

"Next time you ride with me." One of the men said as he kneeled before Tony and hugged him. "Whose this?" Tony turned and looked at me.

"Someone." Tony smiled.

I stood behind Tony as the back of the plane opened. I still had my ragged dress on and my hair and face was still a mess. Tony on the other hand was dress properly, arm in one of those arm band things and all cleaned up. James, the man that greeted us in the desert, helped Tony from his wheelchair. We walked out of the plane as two EMTs came up to us with a stretcher.

"Are you serious?" Tony groaned. "Get rid of them." James waved them off and Tony walked towards a red haired woman. I stood where I was next to Cornel James.

"Hmm." Tony said. "You're eyes are red. Tears for your long lost boss?"

"Tears of joy." The woman said. "I hate job hunting."

"Yeah." Tony said. "I want you to meet someone." He turned and waved me towards him. I reluctantly came up to his side. "This is Amber. She helped me escape." The woman held out her hand. I reluctantly took it.

"Pepper Potts." The woman said. "You got a last name, Amber?"  
"Pricing. Amber Pricing." Cornel James stepped up to Tony.

"Tony, children services are here for Amber."

"What?" Tony questioned him. "Tell them, I'll take her." I looked at him in shock. "She can be my new assistant. She's very smart too so she can help me with. . . stuff."

"Tony, she's underage. She has to go to children services."

"Where she will be put into a foster home, where she will get adopted. Tell them that I'll save them the trouble of all that and I'll adopt her. Just send to paper work to me." I practically felt James roll his eyes as he walked away. Tony turned his attention back to Pepper. "Ok, vacation's over. Let's go." I followed Tony to a black car and reluctantly got into the back seat as Tony joined me and Pepper got into the front passenger seat. A man was in the driver's seat.

"Where to, Sir?" The man asked.

"Take us to the hospital, please, Happy." Pepper said.

"No." Tony protested.

"No?" Pepper said. "Tony, you and Amber have to go to the hospital so the doctor can look at you."

"I don't have to do anything. I've been a prisoner for three months. There are two things, I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger and I want you to call for a press conference. Hogan, drive, cheeseburger first."


	10. Chapter 10

*Flashback*

"This will be your room." Pepper said, opening a door to a room that had huge glass windows to one side that overlooked the ocean.

"Welcome, Mrs. Pricing." A computer voice said. I jumped back in shock and looked around for the source of the noise.

"That's Jarvis." Pepper assured me. "He runs the house." I relaxed and walked over to the queen sized bed at the far side of the room. "There's a pair of clothes on the bed that should suit you for now. There's food in the kitchen you're welcome to. Jarvis can guide you through the current events in the world. Is there anything else you need, Mrs. Pricing?"

"No, thank you, Mrs. Potts." She smiled at me as she turned and closed the door behind her. I walked over to the windows and looked at the ocean waves crashing against the cliffs. I covered my mouth with my hands and began to sob. Not because I was said but because I was happy. I was free. I was actually free. Actually safe. The day I thought would never come actually came. I was free.


	11. Chapter 11

I sat on my bed, face cleaned and dressed in actual American clothes.

"Jarvis?" I called into the room.

"Yes, Mrs. Pricing." Jarvis returned the greeting.

"Could you give me the current events in Canada in 2008?"

"Of course, Mrs. Pricing. Any certain area or event you want to see?"

"No, just pick one."

"Yes, Ma'am." A few seconds later, a transparent screen appeared in mid air in front of me. Sweet.

"Wow." I awed. A newspaper appeared on the screen dated February 13, 2008.

"An explosion happened in Vancouver, Canada on February 13, 2008. It destroyed a Starbucks and a Taco Del Mar. Police reported arson, that originated in the taco restraunt." The newspaper disappeared as a new date appeared on the screen. February 18, 2008, Monday. "A suicide bombing targeting Canadian military."

"Yeah," I said. "I know about that. It killed like 37 Afghan civilians and injured like 3 Canadian soldiers in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan. Right?"

"Correct, Mrs. Pricing." A new date appeared as someone called my name.

"Amber?" It was Tony. "How big are your hands?" His voice rang through the room as a picture of him appeared on the transparent screen.

"Excuse me?" I questioned.

"How big are your hands?" He repeated the question.

"I don't understand why,"

"Get down here, I need you." His picture disappeared as the call ended.


	12. Chapter 12

I walked down the steps to the garage, car battery in my right hand. I punched in my password as the touch screen came up. I opened the door and saw Tony laying on one of those medical table thing. I slowly made my way to him.

"Hey," He greeted me. "Let's see them." I looked at him confusingly. "Show me your hands." I held up my hands for him to see. "Oh, wow, they are small. I just need your help for a second." In his right hand, he held another arc reactor, just like the one in his chest. "I made another one. This is what's going to be keeping me alive." I set my battery onto a table and picked up another arc reactor.

"How many of these did you make?"

"Well, that's just a screw up."

"It looks like it work. The wire work is ok."

"Then, have it. Test it. No need to carry that piece of junk around."

"Thank you, Sir." I said. I set the reactor down and walked over to his side.

"I swapping this out for an upgrade. Just ran into a speed bump."

"A speed bump?" I questioned.

"There's an exposed wire," Tony explained as he pulled the reactor from his chest. "And it's contacting the socket wall causing a shortage." He handed my the old reactor.  
"What do you want me to do?"

"Put that over there on the table. I just want you to reach in and gently lift the wire out."

"Is it safe?" I asked.

"Yeah," Tony said. "It's like operation. Just don't let it touch the socket wall."

"What do you mean operation?"  
"Jeez, I thought you were only there for four years not your whole life." I continued to look at him with a confusing look. "It's just a game, never mind. Just gently left the wire out."

"Ok," I said. I lifted my hand and was about to enter the socket when I chickened out and pulled my hand back. I looked into his brown eyes. "I don't think I'm qualified to do this."

"Of course you are. Didn't you tell me that you have steady hands?"

"Yeah, when I'm not under pressure."

"You're not under pressure."

"Yes, I am. 'Don't let it touch the socket wall.' That's putting me under pressure."  
"You can do this."

"I don't know." I muttered. I closed my eyes and breathed.

"Is it too much to ask?" Tony said, looking at me. "Cause I really need your help here." I took another deep breath and opened my eyes to stare into Tony's eyes of mud.

"Ok, ok," I said. I raised my hand again and slowly shoved my hand into the socket. Something thick and slimy grabbed at my fingers and I closed my eyes in disgust. "Gross, there's pus."

"It's not pus, it's plasma discharge." Tony corrected me. "The copper wire. It's a copper wire. You got it?" The substance was up to my wrist when I found the wire. "You got it?"

"Yeah. I got it. I got it." I said as I curled my fingers around the wire and began to life it up.

"Now don't let it touch the-" Oops, too late. The plasma on my fingers made me lose grip on the wire and it fell against the socket wall. Oops. Tony yelled in pain as an electric shock wept through his body. I quickly grabbed the wire again. "sides, sides. That's what I was trying to tell you before."

"Sorry, sorry." I apologized.

"Now, when you pull it out make sure you don't pull out the-" I yanked the wire out and a magnet on the end. Oops again. He grunted as I pulled it out. So much for steady hands. "-magnet at the end of it. That was it." I started to put it back in but Tony stopped me. "Don't put it back in." I set the magnet and wire onto the table as the computer started beeping rapidly.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing." Tony said sarcastically. "I'm just going into cardiac arrest cause you yanked out the magnet."

"What?" I looked at him with frantic eyes. "I thought you said this was safe."

"So did I until you yanked out the magnet." Tony said, breathing heavily as he struggled to stay conscious. "We got to hurry. Take this. Take this." He handed me the reactor. "You're going to attach the wire to the base plate. And make sure-" Triple oops. Another electric shock wept through Tony's body as I clicked the wire to the base plate. "Ow!" The computer's beeping went to normal speed and Tony's breathing went to normal. I snapped the reactor into place. "I got it. I got it." I backed away from him, holding my hands out in front me as they dripped with plasma. I felt so gross. "Was that so hard? That was fun, wasn't?"

"Are you ok?" I asked, breathing heavily for whatever reason.

"Yeah, I feel great." Tony answered. "Are you ok?" He laughed at me as I glared at him.

"Don't ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again." I said.

"I don't have anyone else with your knowledge." Tony said. I turned my back to him as he climbed off the table. I picked up his old reactor and turned to him.

"What do you want me to do with this?" I asked him.

"That?" Tony questioned as he stared at it for a moment before answering. "Destroy it."

"You don't want to keep it?"

"Amber, I've been called many things and pack rat is not one of them." I looked at the reactor in disappointment.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" I asked.

"That will be all, Mrs. Pricing." Tony answered as he turned his back to me. I turned and grabbed the other reactor and car battery and left the garage.


	13. Chapter 13

"I see you got the reactor in." Tony said as he pointed to the blue light in the middle of my chest. I looked down and admired the light. So beautiful. "Brings the blue out of your eyes." I couldn't help but smile at that as we made our way to the airplane hanger. I was still wearing the shirt and skinny jeans that Pepper laid out for me. Tony was wearing jeans, shirt and a leather black jacket. "I'll take you shopping for more clothes. Go try some American food." When we got the hanger's door, I stopped in turned to look Tony in the eye.

"Mr. Stark," I began. "I read your file. You're a well respected man because you have great power over the military's weapons and you have a lot of money. You're an alcoholic and you do everything alone. Like I said before, Mr. Stark, you're a man who has everything but nothing without a family."

"Maybe I want you to be family. Maybe I'm just curious about you history." I opened the door to the hanger and stepped aside to let Tony in first before joining him on his right side. James was walking in front of a group of people giving a lecture on the planes in the hanger. "Cornel." James stopped talking and looked at us. "Why not a pilot without a plane?" James laughed.

"Well, look who fell out of the sky, Mr. Tony Stark." James announced. I stood still next to James with my arms crossed behind my back as Tony shook hands with the people in the group. "Having fun with him so far?"

"He's very. . ." I paused to think of the correct word to describe Tony. "interesting."

"Yes, he gets more interesting. Give us a couple minutes you guys." James said to the group as they departed. "How you holding up, Amber?"

"Just fine, Sir."

"If there's anything you need, you let me know, ok?"

"Absolutely, Sir." I smiled. James turned his attention back to Tony.

"I didn't expect you to be walking around so soon." He said.

"I'm doing a little better than walking." Tony smirked.

"Really?" James questioned him crossing his arms across his chest.

"Yeah."

"Is he?" James asked me.

"Mr. Stark's palladium level are at a constant rate. Though the palladium is causing he's body not to heal at the normal rate. But the scratches have healed and his arm was not broken, just sprained."

"Yeah, she's a brainiac." Tony said.

"I can see that." James said.

"She memorized the periodic table."

"No way."

"Yep. Test her."

"Ok, palladium then while we're on the subject."

"Palladium. The atomic number is 46. The atomic mass is 106.42. The symbol is Pd." I answered.

"Chlorine."

"Chlorine. The atomic number is 17. The atomic mass is 35.45. The symbol is Cl."

"Who discovered radioactivity?"

"Marie Carrie discovered radioactivity."

"She also knows military planes." Tony bragged.

"Pick a plane in here and give me a description." James said. I looked around the hanger and tapped my finger on my mouth looking at all the planes. I knew many of them. There were only one or two that I didn't know but I needed one that would really impress James. There. At the far end of the hanger was a blue triangle shaped airplane.

"That one." I said, pointing to the plane. "A bomber. B-2. The spirit plane or the stealth bomber. Northrop Gumman was manufacture. It can drop up to eight five hundred pound JDAM- GPS bombs. The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry large air to surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration." I explained.

"Damn." James whispered. I smiled at the admiration for my knowledge. "Smart girl." He turned his attention back to Tony again.

"Rhodey, I'm working on something big." Tony said. "Amber here is going to help me. I mean with her knowledge there's no way I can leave her out. I came to talk to you. I want you to be a part of it." James chuckled.

"You're about to make a whole lot of people happy around here cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy." He said.

"This," Tony began but stopped.

"This isn't for the military." I said.

"Right." Tony said. "I need you to listen to me."

"No." James said sternly. "What you need is time to get your mind right. You and Amber need to be resting. And don't bring Amber into your little projects."

"Well, I'm certainly not going to sit around and let my knowledge go to waste." I protested. "Besides, this project isn't little." The corners of Tony's mouth turned up into a Cheshire cat smile and he gave a small laugh. He was either laughing at my little protest or at James because he doesn't know what he's going to miss. Maybe both.

"I'm serious." James said. "Both of you, go home and rest."

"Ok." Tony said, with the smile still on his face.

"Nice seeing you, Tony." James said as he began to walk away. "You too, Amber."

"Cornel James!" I called after him. He stopped and turned to me. "You said if there's anything I need I should let you know?"

"What is it, Amber?" James asked. I took a deep breath before telling him.

"My little sister was with in Afghanistan." I began.

"I'll get a team over there to look for her." James assured me.

"Cornel, she's-" I paused and took another deep breath as tears burned in the back of my eyes. "She's dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that but what is it that you're asking from me?"

"I watched her get shot right in front of me. She died right in front of me, Cornel, and I did nothing to help her. So I guess what I'm asking is to please try to find her body. I mean the only thing now that I can do for her is to give her a proper burial. Her body shouldn't be over there with those savages."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Cornel. Her body should be somewhere in the caves that me and Mr. Stark were being held." He turned and left the hanger from the back as Tony and I left the hanger from the front.


	14. Chapter 14

I sat across from Tony, screwdriver in left hand, looking at the metal and wire work in front of me. I was working on the third foot and Tony was working on the fourth with the help of the machine which he likes to call, Dummy. I twirled my screwdriver in my hand as I stared in confusion at the moving gadgets on the foot. I must have placed a wire in the wrong place. I grabbed a pair of pliers and began to gently move some wires around. Then, the gadgets stopped. I dropped the pliers in shock and the gadgets started to move again.

"What the hell did I just do?" I muttered, looking at the wires more closely. Then, I found the problem. A wire was tangled with the control wire. Damn it. "Yo, Butterfingers, come here." I called to the machine behind me. He rolled over to me, his arm hanging over my shoulder. "Hold that wire down, please." I said as I picked the pliers back up. "Pull gently." I said. Butterfingers pulled and almost broke the wire. "Gently, stupid. Jeez, if you had broke that, I would have fried your motherboard and turn you into a wine rack for Mr. Stark's birthday." Tony gave a soft chuckle at my alcoholic joke. I untangled the wires and I ordered Butterfingers to let go. "Up." Butterfingers moved up to the next wire. "Not that one. This one." Butterfingers to the correct wire as I fused it into place. "Next." Butterfingers moved to the top of the leg. I almost dropped my pliers in frustration. "You are no benefit at all. God, I think Dummy might even be smarter than you. This one, Butterfingers." He moved to the correct one. I crossed the bronze wire over the control. "Do something useful and move to the bottom and fuse those wires." Butterfingers moved and bumped into my arm. "I'm sorry am in your way?" I moved my arm so he could move. I looked down to the bottom to see the progress Butterfingers made. "Perfect. Thank you." I place the wire back into the foot. "Up." Butterfingers didn't. He must have spaced out again. Great. "Screw it. Don't even move. There." I placed my pliers down and looked at my masterpiece. I pressed a wire down at the top of the leg and the gadgets began to move. I let go and the gadgets stopped. Sweet. I pressed another wire down and the foot split in half so I can put my foot in. Awesome. I looked over my foot to see Tony's progress. "How's it coming, Sir?" I asked.

"You are a tragedy." Tony told Dummy. He finished and pressed the button on his foot and his foot spilt opened too. Perfect.


	15. Chapter 15

Kay, time to put these puppies into action. Tony first of course. He had is metal feet on with two handles in his hands that were connected to his feet. They clunked against the concrete as he moved.

"Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety." Tony ordered over his shoulder. "You, roll it." He ordered at me.

"Yes, Sir." I said, pushing play on the camera in my hands.

"Activating hand controls." Tony announced. "Gonna start out nice and easy. Start out with ten percent thrust capacity. Amber." I leaned over the desk and punched in ten.

"Three, two one, go." I said before pushing enter. It happen so fast, I just stood there and watched. Light came from Tony's feet as he shot up and back into the slanted concrete wall before falling to the ground. Dummy turned to him and sprayed him with carbon dioxide.

"Ooo," I said, almost feeling the pain. "Sir? Sir, are you ok?" No answer. "Mr. Stark?" There was a groan before an answer.

"Wonderful." I heard him mutter. "Let's do it again."


	16. Chapter 16

I sat still as Tony snapped the metal around my arm and clicked the locks shut.

"Is that good?" Tony asked.

"Perfect." I answered.

"Move your hand." I moved it in a circle. "Excellent." The door to the garage opened and I looked past Tony to see Pepper walk in carrying a mug. She walked towards us and set the mug on one of the tables.

"I've been buzzing you." Pepper said. "Didn't you hear the intercom?"

"Uh, no." Tony and I said at the same time.

"Obadiah's upstairs."

"Great, great." Tony muttered. "I'll be right there." He helped me lift my arm off the arm rest. He slowly let go of my arm. "You got it? Is it too heavy?"

"No, Sir." I said.

"Ok, now this wire that's connected to your reactor should fire the plasma ball." Tony instructed.

"Got it." I said, taking the wire from him.

"I thought you said you were done making weapons." Pepper said.

"I am." Tony answered.

"This is a flight stabilizer." I explained.

"It's completely harmless." Tony added. "Ready?"

"Yes, Sir." I pulled the wire and a couple seconds later a plasma ball shot from my hand and sent me flying back into pipes and tools. "Ow."

"I did not expect that." Tony said.

"Look who's talking." I muttered, getting up from the wreckage.

"You ok?" Tony asked.

"Yeah." I set my arm on the table so Tony could help me unlock the metal to set my arm free.

"It was fun though wasn't it?" Tony asked me.

"Loads." I smiled at him.

"You two are going to kill yourselves." Pepper said as she left the garage. Tony and I just smiled at each other as I rubbed my arm from where the metal clamped onto it.


	17. Chapter 17

"Day eleven, test 37, configuration 2.0. Dummy is still on fire safety. If you hose me again and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college." Tony said. He had the metal arms and feet on and he seemed readier than ever. I sat on the edge of the desk, next to the computer, filming Tony. "Ok, nice and easy. Just gonna start off with one percent thrust capacity. Amber." I leaned over the desk and pressed one.

"In three, two, one, lift off." I said as I pressed enter. Power shot from Tony's hands and feet as it lifted him off the ground about two feet. Awesome.

"Kill power." I pressed escape and Tony fell to the ground. He stumbled a couple steps before he gained his balance. Dummy raised the hose and pointed it at Tony but did not fire. "Please don't follow me around either cause then I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously. If something happens then jump in." Dummy lowered his head in disappointment. "Ok, your turn, Amber." I groaned and hopped off the desk, sliding into my metal feet and snapping on my metal arms. "Ready?"

"Ready." I answered.

"Ok, let's bring it up to two point five. In three, two, one." Power lifted me up about five feet into the air. I moved my arms as a reaction to keep myself balanced in the air and when I did, I wished I hadn't. I started to move towards the cars at the far side of the garage. Oh snap. As I fought the air to keep myself balanced, I tried moving my hands to push me away from the cars. It only made me go further. I shot forward towards the concrete wall. At least I wasn't over the cars anymore. I flew over the desk, sending papers flying everywhere. I looked down. I seemed so high up. I loved the feeling of flying. It was like a mixture of butterflies in your stomach and the feeling of winning first place in the science fair. I was so caught up in my head, I forgot I was approaching the concrete wall. At the last second, before me and the wall could make a connection, I placed my hands out in front of me and I shot backwards. When I was next to the desk, I glued my arms to my side, palms facing down. For once, I was flying in one spot.

"Kill power." I said, over the noise of the power. I dropped to the floor with a clunk and I stumbled backwards before I was balanced. I turned to Dummy who had the hose pointed at me. "Don't you dare hose me." Dummy drooped his head. I looked at Tony. "Yeah, we can fly."


	18. Chapter 18

"Sir, I'm starting to have second thoughts about this." I said as I put on my black mask.

"Relax, Am," Tony said as he put on his silver mask.

"We are online and ready." Jarvis said.

"Check control surfaces." I ordered.

"Will do, Ma'am." As Jarvis did that, I looked around and began to get use to my new eyes. It was like a computer in front of my face. Everything I looked at, a description popped up in front of me. "Test complete. About to power down and began diagnostics."

"Uh," Tony began to protest. I didn't like it. "Yeah, tell you what. Do a weather check and start listening in on ground control."

"Sir, there are calculations needed before an actual flight." Jarvis said.

"Jarvis, sometimes you have to run before you can walk." Tony said. "In three, two, one." And with that, he was off and out of the garage. A picture of Tony appeared in front of my eyes and his sweet voice filled the mask. "Are you coming?"

"Um," I paused to ponder the question. "Can I get back to you on that?"

"Come on, Amber, it's great when you get use to it."

"I don't know. What do you think, Jarvis?"

"Mr. Stark's suit is handling it just fine, Mrs. Pricing, if that makes you feel any better." Jarvis said.

"Let's just get this over with." I said.

"As you wish, Mrs. Pricing." Jarvis said. And with that, power swept me off my feet and I steered myself out of the garage, grazing myself just barely against the garage wall as I exited. I shot past Tony and flew into the sky, doing corkscrews as I went.

"You have your eyes close don't you?" Tony asked me.

"No." I lied. I felt a hand grab mine and I stopped flying.

"Open your eyes." I opened them and saw Tony's silver suit next to mine. "Look down."

"Look down?" I questioned him. "Aren't you suppose to be telling me not to look down?"

"Just look down." I reluctantly looked down at the ocean below where the full moon's reflection danced across its sparkling surface. "Now look up." Above me was the full moon, so big and so bright. I felt exposed in the light, my black suit not with the night. Tony's suit seemed like he wasn't even there in the light. "You ready to fly?"

"Oh, yeah." I chuckled. "Ready?" I shot away from Tony, my hand slipping out of his.

"Let's make a bet." Tony said, shooting past me.

"What?"

"If I can go higher than you, then you have to tell me about your past."

"If I can go higher than you, Mr. Stark, then you have to give up your room to me."

"My room?"

"Yes, your room overlooks the ocean completely. Mine just overlooks the docks."

"Fine, deal. Ok, let's see what this thing can do." I shot upward with Tony beside me.

"Jarvis, what's the SR 71 Blackbird's record?" I asked.

"The blackbird's record is 85,000 feet, Ma'am."

"Records are meant to be broken." I said as I shot forward. I was about a body's length away from Tony as I shot towards the moon.

"Ma'am, there is a slight form of ice forming."

"Keep going." I looked down to see that Tony had stopped flying. Pussy. I kept going. "Higher." I got to about 83,000 before power went out and Jarvis was gone. I stopped and hung in the air for about a second before I started to plummet to the ground screaming. I fell past Tony, almost hitting him. "Deploy flaps, Jarvis, deploy flaps! Jarvis?" I grabbed the knob on my left leg and pulled it to deploy the flaps on my back. The ice broke and my suit turned back on. I was about ten feet from the ground when I started flying again. Cars honked at me as I dodged them and shot back up into the sky. "Thanks for the help." I said to Tony as I passed him.

"I knew that you could handle it." He said with a chuckle. I skimmed the ocean surface as I shot towards home with Tony beside me. I landed on the roof with ease as Tony hovered beside me. "Kill power." Tony's suit turned off and fell through the roof and fell all the way to the garage. Ouch.


	19. Chapter 19

"Here you go, Mr. Stark." I said handing Tony a cup of coffee and an ice bag. He took the bag of ice from me and held it to his head as he took a sip from his coffee. He sat down in his computer chair with a groan as I picked up a brown package from one of the tables. I stood there wondering if I should really give it to him. I looked up from the package at Tony. His chest rose and fell at a steady pace, the blue light from his arc reactor shining through his white shirt.

"What's that?" Tony asked me. I reluctantly extended my right arm and handed the brown package to him.

"It's a thank you gift. You know, saving me from Afghanistan, taking me in." I explained.

"Well, I believe it was you who saved me from Afghanistan." Tony protested as he tore the wrapping off the cube.

"You're the one who designed the robot."

"You sacrificed your sister to keep the building of the robot a secret." I looked down at my feet and shuffled my hands together.

"It's even then. We saved each other in Afghanistan." I said, holding out my hand to seal the deal. He took my hand gently in his and shook it. He looked at the cube in his hands. It was glass and inside had the old arc reactor on a stand with a metal band around it with writing on it. It said, 'Proof that Tony Stark does have a heart.' "The writing was Pepper's idea. I just engraved it and built it. So it's really from both me and her." He looked up at me with his adorable brown eyes.

"Thank you, Mrs. Pricing." He said with the cutest smile ever.

"You're welcome, Mr. Stark." I returned the smile and turned and walked to my table where scrap metal was laid out. I could feel his eyes burning into my back as I picked up some metal and began to work on whatever my mind could think of. I couldn't help but smile to myself.


	20. Chapter 20

I sat on the couch in the garage, playing with my touch screen tab thing that Tony gave to me while he and Jarvis talked about the suit.

"Icing started around 82,000 feet." I said as I touched a file on my tab and my suit popped up in 3D. Sweet. The flat screen TV in front of me was on and as soon as the woman spoke Tony's name, I looked up. Some party. Knew about it already. I returned to my diagram suit.

"The render is complete." Jarvis said.

"What you think, Amber?" Tony asked me as a yellow suit appeared next to my black one.

"You want the truth or a lie?" I muttered. It was so bright next to my black suit, I had to squint my eyes.

"I'll have to go with the truth."

"Too bright." I said, flicking Tony's suit off my tab.

"Yes, what was I thinking?" Jarvis said with a sarcastic tone. "You're usually more discreet."

"Throw in some hot rod red." Tony said.

"Yes, that should help you keep a low profile. Would that be the same for you, Mrs. Pricing?" Jarvis asked me. I looked at my suit in thought and tried to imagine the red on it.

"Sure, why not?" I answered. I watched the diagram as red swept over the suit leaving a black face, upper arms and upper legs.

"How's this?" Tony asked as once again his suit appeared beside mine.

"I like yours but Jarvis, can you switch the colors around on mine please?"

"Yes, Ma'am." The black face, arms and legs became red and the rest was black. "How's that?"

"Paint it." Tony said.

"Go for it." I said.

"Estimated completion time is seven hours." Jarvis concluded.

"Don't wait up for me." I said, smashing the suit back into my tab, setting it on the coffee as I stood up and walked towards the glass door.

"Where you going?" Tony asked me.

"Pepper and I have plans tonight." I said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. Is it alright?"

"Yeah, of course."

"You sure you don't need anything before I go?"

"Nope."

"May I go now, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes you may, Mrs. Pricing." I smiled at him before and turning and leaving the garage.


	21. Chapter 21

The cold air clawed at my bare back, the dress wrapping around waist and tied around my neck. I hadn't felt this exposed, this good, this beautiful in like five years but the blue of the dress comfort me. We were at the Chambray Hotel in the ballroom. I stood next to Pepper who wore a blue dress as well, her red hair in curls that fell gently onto her shoulders. My blonde hair was up in a bun, every strand in place. Pepper chattered with some friends as I spaced in and out of the conversation. I glanced around the room, observing all the dancing and talking people. I felt so tall in my five inch high heels, like I belonged here. I do belong here. I'm an assistant of Tony Stark. Of course, I belonged here.

"You look fantastic." A familiar voice sounded behind and Pepper and I looked in that direction. Tony walked towards us through the crowd wearing a black tux, handsome as ever. I felt my legs grow weak, my stomach do flips and my heart skip a beat as Tony stepped within a foot of me.

"What are you doing here?" Pepper asked.

"Sir, do you know how many expected you not to be here?" I asked.

"Of course I knew." He said. "That's why I came."

"Are you by yourself?" Pepper asked.

"Yes. Are you?"

"No, actually. I have Amber here and a guy friend who's off getting me a drink."

"A guy friend?"

"Yes. He's name Larry. Is there a problem?"

"No, no, not at all. Where you get that dress?" Tony asked me as Pepper walked off to meet Larry.

"It was a welcome gift from you." I said.

"Oh, well, I guess I got great taste then." Tony said with the cute smile.

"Yes." And as I reaction to the warmth of the smile, I smiled back.

"Want to dance?"

"No," I was stunned by the question and I stepped back. "I possibly can't."

"Alright, come on." Tony took me by the hand and led me to the center of the room. I felt my cheeks heat up and my palm began to sweat. I swear my heart stopped the moment he took me by the hand. I'm just a walking zombie now. When his left hand placed onto my hip and I placed my right hand onto his upper arm, it was like electricity flown from him to me and jumps start my heart. I ordered myself to relax and not to make a fool out of myself. I was just eye level with him in these heels. I took a deep breath and looked over his right shoulder and anywhere but his breath taking dirty brown eyes. I could see him look at me from the corner of my right eye and I couldn't help but look at him too. I smiled and sharply exhaled a breath that I didn't realize I was holding. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Um, no, yes, no," I stuttered not knowing whether to tell a lie or the truth. "I just worry that I don't know how to dance with my boss in a dress with no back. I don't know." I decided to stop talking.

"You look great and you're dancing great." Tony assured me. "I can fire you if you want. If that would, will, make you, take the edge off." He stuttered too. I just had to smile at that. It's like impossible to frown at this guy.

"Pepper says that you can't even tie your own shoes without an assistant." I said.

"Did she?"

"Yes, she did."

"You throwing her under a bus?"

"Um, more like accidentally bumping into her as the bus drives by."

"Ah, look at that. You making a joke. That's progress. I think I'll make a week without an assistant before I hire another one."

"What's you social security number?" It took him awhile to answer.

"Eight." He finally answered.

"That's one of the digits. You're missing the other eight digits." I chuckled.

"I got you and Pepper for the other eight. That's what assistants are for." We locked eyes, brown meeting blue, and everything around me just froze. It felt like in that one moment, it was only us. The only ones that were moving. Until he spoke. "What some air?" I cleared my throat.

"Yes, that would be nice. Some air would be nice." He once again took me by the hand and led me to the roof and once again my cheeks heated up. I leaned on the side of the roof wall and looked out over the street. For once, I was not scared of heights. Tony stood beside me.

"It was harmless." Tony said.

"It wasn't."

"We just danced."

"It wasn't just a dance because you're you and I read your file and everyone knows how you are with girls and you're my boss."

"I really don't think," Tony tried to speak but I kept speaking.

"And it makes me look like the one who's trying to. . ." I didn't know how to put it so my voice just kinda trailed off.

"I really don't think it was taken that way. I just think you're overstating. That's all."

"Then, we're here and I'm," I looked down at my feet as I continued to spoke, no longer having the ability to look into Tony's eyes. "wearing this stupid dress and we were dancing like that and I don't know what I'm saying. I just don't a bad reputation in the first week of working for you." I looked up at him to see a reaction from but instead I found myself leaning in towards him. I didn't know if he was leaning in towards me or not but when are faces were about three inches away from each other, I got control over my body and stepped back from him which almost killed my heart. "I'm gonna go home and check on the suits."

"You want a ride?" Tony asked, clearing his throat.

"No, that's fine. I'll have Happy drive me."

"Ok, ok." I turned and left Tony on the roof on by himself but the feeling of his eyes burning into my bare back stayed with me.


	22. Chapter 22

I held Tony's right arm in my right arm and the screwdriver in my left. While Tony's eyes were fixed on the TV, watching some news in Afghanistan, I was making sure the wiring was right in Tony's arm. I screwed in the last screw and placed the screwdriver on the coffee table as he stood up. He held out his arm and shot a plasma ball down the garage. He shot another at the glass window and another one and another one. I covered head with my hands to protect myself from the flying shards of glass. After I was sure Tony was done letting off some anger, I looked up to see every glass window broken.

"Sorry," He muttered, glancing over at me. "Ready to go to Afghanistan?"

"Hell yeah." I said, standing up and walking to the end of the garage. The floor opened as I approached the platform and machine arms came out and began to attach my suit to me. I stepped into my shoes as my legs got locked into the suit. I stuck my arms into the metal sleeves and the rest snapped on with ease. The helmet placed onto my head and the mask snapped over my face. I looked over to Tony who was in his red and yellow suit. He nodded and I nodded back. Let's go kick some Afghan ass.


	23. Chapter 23

I flew under Tony the whole way to Afghanistan. In front of my face, Jarvis had put up a transparency map. Gods, I love flying. I felt heavy like an elephant and light as a feather at the same time. I felt like I was on Firehawk at King's Island. Tony shot forward at full speed and broke the sound barrier. Show off. It took me awhile to catch up with Tony but when I finally did, we were in Afghan territory. Tony stopped and hovered in mid air and I did the same. We both looked at the ground. Jarvis zoomed in on the village below and pointed it out that it was the right village.

"That's the village?" Tony asked.

"Yep," I said, my voice deepened by the suit. I shot towards the ground with Tony behind. I held out my hands and shot jets out to slow down my fall and landed with ease. As soon as I landed, people started shooting at us. At first, I cringed, waiting for pain but it didn't come. Oh yeah, I'm wearing an invincible suit. Duh. Tony and I stood back to back with each other. I shot one guy after another, after another with plasma jets. I turned to the left and was about to shoot another plasma jet when Tony stopped me. Hostages. About four, five Afghan people had women and children hostage by a truck.

"I got this." Tony said. Few seconds later, guns appeared from Tony's shoulders and shot the Afghan people without even touching the hostage.

"Nice." I said. We turned and walked to a building where Tony punched through a wall and pulled out a man and threw him onto the ground. It was Leader. A group of refugees gathered around Leader ready to kick his ass. Not so tough now. "He's all yours." And with that, Tony and I took off into the sky. It was clear today. A cloud hear and there, the sun shining.

"We got something else we need to do." Tony said.

"What?"

"Remember that missile that they were trying to make us build?"

"Yeah, the Jericho Missile."

"Yep, there's one somewhere around here and we need to get rid of it."

"You got it." I said, scanning the ground until a red target appeared on the ground and a picture of the Jericho Missile appeared. "Hey, Mr.-" I couldn't even finish the sentence when something hard hit me and knocked me from the sky.

"Amber!" I heard Tony's voice in my mask. I landed in the dirt and I groaned in pain. I stood up and looked at the crater I made. Whoa, that's right, don't mess with this bitch. Fuck with me and plummet from the sky and kill your ass. I crawled out of the hole and stared at whatever hit me. A tank. I held out my arm and a small five inch long missile appeared out of my arm and fired at the tank. I turned around and saw the Jericho Missile as the tank behind me blew up. Well, at least I fell into the right village. Wait a minute. Is that?

"Mr. Stark, there's two missiles here." I said.

"Get one and I'll get the other." Tony ordered.

"Yes, Sir." I flew up into the air above the missile and shot it with a plasma jet. I had to fly higher to avoid the flames from the explosion. Another jet came from behind me and blew up the second missile. I turned around and saw Tony hovering above me. We started flying home, full of joy. A picture of James appeared in front of me and Tony answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Tony?" James called to him. "It's Rhodes."

"Sorry?"

"I said it's Rhodes."

"You're gonna have to speak up."

"What the hell is that noise?"

"Um, I'm driving with Amber." Tony lied.

"Well, I need your help right now. Amber can help to. Can you hear me, Amber?"

"Yep, loud and clear, Cornel." I said.

"Good, cause I need your help too."

"Funny how that works." Tony said in a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, speaking of funny, we got some weapons that got blown just a few clicks from where you and Amber were being held."

"Well, well," Tony couldn't even finish his sentence cause he was so out of breath.

"That is a hot spot, Cornel." I said.

"Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you." Tony added with a sharp exhale of breath.

"Why do you sound out of breath? Both of you?" James asked.

"I'm not." Tony said.

"Me either. We were" I paused to think of a lie. "Jogging in the canyon."

"I thought you were driving." He just has to push it, doesn't he?"

"Right." I said. "We were driving to the canyon where we were going to jog."

"You sure you don't have any tech in the area I should know about?" James asked.

"Nope." Tony answered.

"Amber?" James called to me.

"He has no tech there as well as I'm aware, Cornel." I said.

"Ok, good, cause I'm staring at two right now that's about to get blown to hell." What? What was he talking about? I looked behind me and saw two raptors on our asses. Great.

"That's out exit." I said, rolling to the left and shooting towards the ground, trying to lose the raptors. Tony hung up on James and followed my lead. I put in full speed trying to out fly the raptors.

"Incoming missile." Jarvis concluded.

"Amber, fly in front of me." Tony ordered. He slowed down so I could get in front of him. "Deploy flares." I heard the explosion and blew Tony right into me. Metal against metal sounded and started falling until I got control over the suit again and put in full speed towards home. Bullets fired and I rolled left and right to dodge them. "Deploy your flaps, Amber." I did as I was told and I abruptly stopped and the raptors flew past me. "Think we got rid of them?"

"I certainly hope so, Sir." I said, out of breath.

"I'm calling Rhodey."

"Hello?" James answered the phone.

"Hi, Cornel. It's us." I answered for Tony since he was so out of breath too.

"It's who?"

"I'm sorry, it is us. You asked what you were asking about us."

"No, you see, this isn't a game. You guys do not send active civilian weapons into my war zone. Do you understand that?" I was starting to get light headed and frustrated.

"It's not a piece of equipment, Cornel! We're in them. They're suits. It's us!" Then, just hovering here, minding my own business, something hits me once again. A raptor. The stupid raptor decided to fly into me and now it just lost a wing. I gained control over the suit and watched as the guy punched out of the raptor as it exploded. "Uh, Sir, I'm not seeing a chute." The guy was falling fast and I still didn't see a chute.

"Me either." Tony said. "It must be jammed."

"I got it." I said, flying down towards the guy. I grabbed the seat and pulled out the handle and let go as soon as the chute came out and I flew back up to Tony. We flew over mountains and headed home as James spoke to us again.

"Tony? Amber? You guys still there?" He asked.

"Hey," Tony greeted him.

"Thanks." I added.

"Oh my god. You're a crazy son of a bitch, Tony, and Amber, you're just crazy for letting yourself get into this and you always own me a plane. You do know that right, Amber?" I laughed at that.

"Well, actually, technically, he hit me." I said.

"So, now you're going to come by and see what we're doing?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, now what am I suppose to tell the press?"

"Uh, training exercise." Tony suggested. "That is the usually BS, right, Amber?"

"I believe so, Sir." I answered, doing a few corkscrews.

"It's not that simple." James said.


	24. Chapter 24

"Hey!" Tony yelled at Jarvis. "Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"Sorry, Sir, it is a tight fit." Jarvis said. I walked down the steps to the garage, a screwdriver in hand, trying to get the damn right arm metal off. It was clamped onto my arm like an octopus arm and my arm was starting to go numb. It seemed like every screw I turned and every wire I moved, the metal got tighter and tighter. I walked into the garage and stopped when I saw Tony and the machine arms still trying to get the suit off. It wasn't going to good. The arms were tugging and Tony was pulling back to. "Sir, the more you struggle the more this is going to hurt."

"Yeah, well this is my first time." Tony said. I shook my head, not even wanting to think about what Tony just said and walked in front of him. He stared at me.

"Having some technical difficulties, Mr. Stark?" I asked, grunting in pain as I turned a screw on and the metal pinched my arm.

"How the hell did you get your suit off?"

"Um, I actually have no idea. But it's this arm that's killing me and it won't come off." Something clicked in the arm as I turned another screw and a plasma ball shot out from my hand and hit the floor in front of me, just barely missing my left foot. And I thought I was onto to something for a moment.

"Yeah, and you're saying I'm having technical difficulties. Ow!" Tony yelled as one of the arms tugged at his arm. "I designed for this thing to come off."

"Please try not to move, Sir." Jarvis said. Glass crunched by the door and I looked past the machine arms and saw Pepper standing there in astonishment.

"What is going on?" She asked. Tony reluctantly looked over his left shoulder at her. They held a stare for a moment before Tony spoke.

"Let's face it." He said. "This is not the worst thing you caught me doing." Once again, I shook my head and tried not to think to much about the words that Tony just said.

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper asked looking more closely at the suit.

"Hey!" I exclaimed as the metal arm fell off my arm and onto the floor with a clank. "I got it!" Tony looked back at me with a glare.

"Show off." He muttered. "Ow!"


	25. Chapter 25

I sat down on the white leather couch beside the window that over looked the ocean as Tony handed me a cup of tea as he sat down beside me.

"So, about that deal." Tony began as he took a sip from his whiskey.

"What deal?"

"That bedroom slash past deal."

"Oh, that deal. What about it?"

"You lost, so start talking."

"What? No, Sir. You start moving. I won you lost."

"You did not win."

"I won you lost." I repeated.

"You did not win." Tony insisted.

"I won you lost."

"How did you win?"

"I flew higher than you. You went 80,000 and I went 83,000. I won. Now start moving." I paused. "Please." I paused again. "Sir." He just stared at me as he took a sip from his whiskey and I took a sip from my tea. "Fine, call it even. You give me your room and I tell you my past."

"Deal." Tony agreed. We shook on it and took another sip from our drinks. "First, thing I want to know is why the hell was you in Afghanistan?" I began to answer when a high pitch sound killed my ears and my head felt like two hands were on either side of my head and pressing inward, trying to make my skull cave in. I tried to move my head to the right to look at Tony but found that I lost mobility in my entire body. I felt electricity of pain in every vein but I couldn't even cry out in pain. A face appeared in my view and it took me a moment to remember who it was. Obadiah. Tony's partner in the Stark Industries. Obadiah pulled something from his suitcase and pressed a button on the device and claws appeared from the top of it. Oh, I don't like the looks of that. Obadiah pressed the claws around Tony's reactor and pulled it from his chest as Tony grunted in pain. Obadiah placed the reactor in the suitcase and left the house. Oh snap, oh snap, oh snap. Here we are. I'm paralyzed. Tony's paralyzed. Tony doesn't have his reactor otherwise something to keep him alive. I'm paralyzed. Tony has about fourteen minutes before he goes into cardiac arrest and I'm paralyzed. Oh, snap. Oh, snap. Oh, snap.


	26. Chapter 26

As soon as I was able to move my body again, I was up and running around the mansion, freaking out and not knowing what to do. Tony was still on the couch only having nine minutes before he goes into cardiac arrest and I was here freaking out. Ok, ok, ok, ok. Stop, drop and think. Think, think, think, think, think. Come on, Amber, you memorized the stupid periodic table and you know how to rebuild a car engine and you can't even think of a way to save someone's life. I need help. Ok, I need help. Who? 911, duh. No, I can't. Those stupid people don't know how to fix a hole in someone's chest. They'll just tell me he just as good as dead. Let him die. Not good for me. Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, who else? Who else? Pepper. Right, Pepper. I gotta call Pepper. I picked up the nearest phone in the mansion, not even sure where I even was in the mansion, and dialed Pepper's number. Five rings passed and voice mail. I dialed again. Five rings passed and no answer. I dialed again. Five rings passed and no answer and voice mail. Oh my god, she's not answering. She's not answering. My heart started racing faster and faster. Oh my god, what if she's hurt? What if she's dead? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, I need to calm. If I don't calm down, I'm going to have a heart attack before Tony does. Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok, deep breaths. Deep, deep, breaths. Ok, who else can I call? Rhodey! I looked at my wrist watch and saw that Tony only had seven minutes. I quickly punched in James's number. Three rings passed before I finally got an answer.

"Tony, if you're playing some kind of game then-" James began to speak but I interrupted him.

"Cornel, I need your help." I said.

"Amber, what's wrong?"

"Obadiah came and took Tony's reactor and now he only has seven minutes," I checked my watch. "scratch that, five minutes before he goes in cardiac arrest and I don't know what to do. I don't know where Pepper is and she's not answering my calls and I'm just freaking out, Cornel. I am freaking out. I don't know what to do!" I said hastily, out of breath when I was done.

"Ok, Amber, you need to calm down, right now." James said in a stern but gentle tone. "Pepper's alright. I just got down talking to her. She's headed to arrest Obadiah with some agents right now."

"What? Arrest him? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not going to cut it, Cornel. He took Tony's reactor therefore he's onto something big."

"Ok, ok, let's not worry about Obadiah at the moment let's worry about Tony."

"Right, right, Tony, Tony." I wiped the sweat off my face and checked my watch. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. He only has three minutes. Oh my god. What do I do?"

"Ok, didn't you keep his old reactor?" The reactor. At that moment, I felt so utterly stupid.

"Thanks for making me stupid." I growled.

"Right, I'm on my way over." I hung up and raced through the mansion again until I found the staircase to the garage. I ran down, covering three steps at a time. I raced past Dummy and Butterfingers to the tool counter. It wasn't there.

"Jarvis, where's Mr. Stark's old reactor?"

"On his desk, Ma'am." I raced to his desk and grabbed the glass cube and smashed it on the ground. I grabbed the reactor and raced up the steps, two at a time, checking my watch. One minute. I ran to Tony on the couch and with quivering hands hooked the wire to the base plate in his chest and snapped it in.

"Tony!" A voice called through the house. "Amber!" I looked in the direction of the noise. James. I raced to the front of the house to him. "Tony! Amber!"

"Cornel!" I said when I saw him. We raced back to Tony who was still on the couch.

"Tony!" James raced to him. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." Tony managed to say with the shortness of breath that he had.

"Where's Pepper?" I asked.

"She's with agents about to arrest Obadiah."

"That's not going to be enough." Tony muttered, getting up from the couch. I raced to his side and helped him down the steps to the garage. We walked to the platform and machine arms came out with out suits and began to place the pieces on our bodies. James stood back and circled us, checking out the suits.

"That's the coolest thing I ever seen." James awed.

"Not bad huh?" Tony questioned him. "Let's do it." The arms finished and placed my helmet on.

"Need me to do anything else?" James asked as me and Tony got ready to take off.

"Keep the skies clear." I said as my mask snapped over my face. Tony flew out through the hole in the ceiling and I bolted out the driveway. We met together in the sky and flew towards the industry.

"How do you think the chest piece is going to hold up?" Tony asked Jarvis.

"The suit is at 48% power fully, Sir. Those chest pieces were never designed for sustained flight." Jarvis answered.

"Just keep us posted." I said.

"Will do." Jarvis said.

"I'm calling Pepper." Tony told me.

"Gotcha." I replied.

"Pepper." Tony greeted her.

"Tony!" She cried in a frantic tone. "Tony! Are you ok? Is Amber ok?"

"We're both fine." I said.

"Obadiah's gone insane."

"I know." Tony said. "Listen, you better get out of there." Pepper wasn't even listening.

"He built a suit." She said.

"We know." I said. "Just get the hell out of there!" As we approached the industry, I saw a huge ass, gray, scrap metal, piece of shit robot come out of the ground right next to Pepper.

"I got this Amber." Tony said. Too late, I was already flying full speed at Obadiah. I collided with Obadiah and we became like a snowball and rolled through the concrete wall behind Obadiah and out onto the highway. We smashed through a semi and into some cars. Obadiah ended up on top of me and for a second, I thought I was screwed to hell.

"19%." Jarvis said. Oh shit. Tony came out of the sky and plummet into Obadiah knocking him off of me. I got up and dodged an oncoming car. Highway, not a good spot to fight. With one flick of Obadiah's arm, Tony was halfway down the highway. "20%, Mr. Stark." Obadiah threw a guy off a motorcycle and grabbed to bike and hit me with it like the bike was a bat and I was the baseball. I flew through a bus and the bus exploded. I was on the ground dazed when Obadiah came over to me and kicked me. Geez, whatever happened to don't hit a girl rule? Tony flew at Obadiah but Obadiah turned around and grabbed Tony out of midair. He held Tony high above his head.

"For twenty years, I've been holding you up." Obadiah growled as he slammed Tony into the ground and stepped on him like he was a tiny bug. "You built this company for nothing. Nothing is going to stand in my way." Obadiah picked Tony up like a rag doll and threw him into me and sent us flying into a concrete wall. A missile appeared from Obadiah's shoulder and shot it at us. The concrete wall blew and Tony and I flew up into the air. We caught ourselves in midair before we hit the ground. We hovered side by side and stared at Obadiah. "Impressive." Obadiah chuckled. "You've upgraded your armor. I made some upgrades of my own." Jets shot from Obadiah's feet and he slowly began to rise from the ground. Double oh shit.

"Sir, Ma'am, it seems like this suit can fly." Jarvis said.

"Oh really, what gave you the hint?" Tony asked sarcastically.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked Tony.

"I didn't fix the icing problem on my suit." Tony said.

"Good thing I did." I said as I shot up into the air, hoping Obadiah would pay attention to me and not Tony. "Take me to maximum height, Jarvis."

"With only 15% power, the odds of reaching that height," Jarvis began to protest.

"I know the math!" I yelled at him. "Just do it." I looked down and saw Obadiah following me.

"13% percent power, Ma'am."

"Amber, come back down!" Tony said.

"Go!"

"11%."

"Am!"

Go!"

"Seven percent power." Jarvis concluded as I felt energy drain from me.

"Amber, dammit, come back down!"

"Just leave it on the screen and stop telling me dammit." I felt something grab my left leg and pull me down. A hand grabbed my chest and turned me around and next thing I knew, I was looking into Obadiah's suit's glowing blue eyes. The huge hands moved to my neck and I tried to pry them off of me.

"Amber!" For once, I wasn't in the mood for Tony's voice.

"Yes, I know my name's Amber so shut up, Tony, I know what I'm doing!" I growled, it was the first time I used Tony's first name and it sounded sweet on my tongue.

"Amber?" Obadiah questioned, squeezing my neck tighter where sparks flew. "Are you in there, Amber? Wow, when Tony said you were a smart girl, I didn't believe him. But now I do and I'm just going to say, my suit is advanced in every way." Ha, that's so funny.

"How'd you fix the icing problem?" I asked, looking at the thin layer of ice on the his suit.

"Icing problem?" Obadiah said questioningly as he suit shut off.

"Might want to look into it." I said, hitting him on the head. Obadiah let go of me and began to fall to the ground like a meteor. I hovered there, the crescent moon shining on me, revealing me to the people below, jets coming out of both hands and feet.

"One percent." Jarvis said and my jets gave out on me and I fell about a thousand feet before jets came for a split second and gave out again and came back again. "We are now on emergency back up power." The jets gave out and didn't come back.

"I thought emergency back up. Some back up." I growled at Jarvis as I fell.

"There's seems to be a malfunction." Jarvis said.

"Oh, so now you tell me." I was about five thousand feet when something caught me. I looked behind me and saw Tony.

"I got you, Brainiac." He chuckled and even through the suit, I could feel the warmth of his smile. We landed on the industry rooftop and it took me a moment to gain my balance. You try flying 83,000 and not get light headed. "Potts. I'm almost out of power and Amber doesn't have enough power to power her suit. We got to get out of these things." We flipped up our masks and cold air attacked and started clawing at my face.

"You thought I was done?" Obadiah's voice sounded behind us. Oh, come on, just die already. Tony and I turned around and snapped our masks back over our faces. Obadiah threw a punch at Tony which he easily dodged. I held out my hand, thinking that a jet of plasma would come out but then I remembered. Right, no power. How could I ever forget? Obadiah smacked me and I flew across the rooftop, almost falling off. I ran full speed and jumped, punching Obadiah in the head. He grabbed me by the stomach and started to squeeze me. Metal crunched and pressed against my stomach and knocked the wind out of me. Tony jumped up, grabbed Obadiah by the arm and deployed his flares. Obadiah let go of me and I backed away from him as he stumbled blindly in the smoke. Tony pushed me in front of him and ran behind a wall with him behind me. I peered over the side of the wall and saw Obadiah looking around the rooftop looking for Tony and me while Tony spoke to Pepper. Obadiah started to walk towards the wall that Tony and I were hiding behind. I pushed Tony gently, telling him to move. We ran to another hiding spot. Tony turned to me.

"The wires that control his suit seems to be behind his neck. Do you think you can try to malfunction his suit?" I walked past Tony and peered out of our hiding spot. Obadiah had his back to us. Perfect. I raced towards him and jumped onto his back and peered into his back where the wires where. I hung onto to the shoulder blade as Obadiah turned left and right, trying to shake me off. Gotta decide, gotta decide. Which wire, which wire? Which one looks big and juicy? Ah ha.

"This looks important!" I yelled as I grabbed a huge wire and pulled it out of his back. Obadiah groaned as he started to experience whatever the hell I pulled out. Obadiah swung left and right harder and I hung on for dear life. I felt like a was riding a bull and Tony was the red flag. Obadiah finally got a hold of me with his hands and threw me onto the glass roof window, right above the big reactor. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die.

"Just hold still, Amber!" Tony said.

"Trust me, I wasn't planning on moving." I said, staring at a big crack in the glass in front of me. Tony jumped at Obadiah and punched him in the face. Obadiah grabbed Tony by the face and threw him onto the glass next to me, tearing Tony's helmet off and making the crack in the glass grow bigger. Obadiah held Tony's helmet in his hand as his suit opened up in the middle and his ugly ass bald headed face appeared.

"I never had a taste for this kind of thing." Obadiah said. "But I must admit, I'm deeply enjoying the suit." He crushed Tony's helmet with one hand and tossed it aside. "You finally out did yourself, Tony. You found yourself a beautiful, Brainiac young girl who makes you look stupid. You should let her run the company. She knows what she's doing if she built that suit there. You've made your father proud." I stood up very, very, slowly with Tony beside me. Obadiah stepped up to the glass and started shooting at us. Tony pushed me behind him and held up his arm which deployed a small shield. Glass around us broke and then it came to the glass that we were standing on. The glass broke and I fell through when Tony caught me by the left arm. He was hanging on to the edge on the glass frame and Obadiah was still shooting at us.

"Tony!" Pepper called from below.

"How ironic, Tony," Obadiah spoke as he stopped shooting at us. "You try to rid the world of weapons and you gave it its one ever." Tony look down into my black eyes of my mask with his sad looking brown eyes.

"I got to do this, Amber." He said.

"I know." I replied.

"You ready?"

"It's now or never."

"Pepper!"

"Now, I'm gonna kill you with it." Obadiah said as he shot a missile at us and missed. "Ha, you ripped out my targeting system, Amber!"

"Time to hit the button!" Tony yelled down at Pepper.

"You told me not to!" She yelled up.

"Hold still you little prick." Obadiah growled as he shot another missile and missed. I gripped Tony's hand tighter when I felt myself slipping.

"Just do it!" I yelled.

"You and Tony will die!" Pepper protested. Obadiah shot another missile and missed yet again but the impact of the missile in the wall made Tony's finger's on the frame slip a little.

"Push it!" Tony and I yelled in unison. Sparks flew from the reactor and blew. The only thought in my head as Tony and I flew into the air from the impact of the blue, pretty, explosion, was I hope Pepper made it out. I landed back on the roof top with a clank. I groaned in pain and rolled onto my stomach and stood up, flipping up my mask. I looked around the roof top and saw good and bad news. The good news was I didn't see Obadiah and the bad news was I didn't see Tony either. Then, I saw him. He was on the ground, not moving. Oh, god, oh, god. I raced to his side. No light shown from his reactor and his eyes were closed.

"Tony!" I called his name. "Tony!" His reactor flickered and his eyes opened wide. I sighed and smiled. He looked at me and punched me in the chest, hard enough for me to stagger back. I sat back up and punched him back in the chest. "What the hell was that for?"

"For almost getting me killed."

"What? I'm the one who saved your ass."

"You almost got me killed."

"You chose to save me."

"You made me save you."

"I didn't make you do anything."

"You made me save you."

"Whatever." I stood up. "I saved your ass." I turned and began to walk across the roof to the fire escape.

"Where you going?" Tony called after me.

"Home." I answered over my shoulder. "Home to my new bedroom and my new view over the ocean. I saved your ass and your fine so find your own way home."


	27. Chapter 27

I sat on the table in front of Tony, trying to stitch up a cut on his face. He was reading the paper and listening to James talk on TV.

"Iron Man is kinda catchy."Tony said as winced in pain and looked at me. "It's got a nice ring to it, don't you think?" I finished the cut and gently cleaned it.

"Yeah, but did you see what they call me?" I said. Tony looked back into the paper and laughed.

"Iron Boy." He chuckled. "That's funny."

"In some ways I'm offended, but what the hell? I like having a secret identity and I would like to keep it that way." I smiled at him.

"Here's your alibi." An agent walked up behind me and handed Tony a set of blue cards that he would be reading off of when he went to the press conference.

"Ok." Tony said, not sure if he really did want to read off the cards. I placed a finger on Tony's chin and turned his head to his right so I could apply make up to the black eye. It looked awful.

"You were on your yacht," The agent started to explain. "You were there all night with Mrs. Potts and it's sworn by fifty of your guests."

"See," Tony began to speak. "I was thinking it should be just Amber and me." I peeled off a bandage from just above his right eye and applied make up to it to cover it up. He looked at me and I smiled at him to show agreement.

"That's what happened." The agent agreed. "Just read the cards word from word."

"There's nothing about Stain in here." Tony said, skimming through the cards.

"That's being handled. He's on vacation." Agent explained.

"But what about the cover up story?" Tony questioned. "He's my body guard?"

"Just stick to the cards and you'll be fine. You got ninety seconds." The agent ordered. I finished up Tony's face as the agent began to leave the room but stopped.

"Oh, and Mrs. Pricing." I turned to him. "Cornel Rhodes and his men found your sister's body and a funeral is being arranged."

"Thank you, Agent Colson." I thanked him and turned back to Tony as he scanned the cards again. "Come on, let's go." I grabbed Tony's jacket from the chair as he stood up from the table and walked over to me. For once, I didn't grow weak in the legs. My heart skipped a beat but my stomach doesn't flip. I was starting to enjoy his company.

"I don't even think I believe I'm Iron Man." Tony said as he turned around and I helped him put his jacket on.

"You're not Iron Man." I said. "You're just a guy who built a fancy fighting suit."

"You're saying you're not Iron Boy?"

"Absolutely," I chuckled as Tony turned back around to face me. "Because I'm most definitely am not a boy."

"That's good because if you were a boy then I most likely wouldn't have this crazy, insanely, illegal thought in my head."

"And would that be?"

"I would have this girlfriend who's young and beautiful and smart maybe even smarter than me. She would worry about me, do anything I ask her to and that would only make her even more crazy about me. Do you ever think about that night?" He asked me as I straightened out his suit and buttoned the middle buttons.

"What night?" I asked, playing innocent as I fixed his tie.

"You know." He insisted. I looked up at him and he cocked his head slightly to the left.

"The night that we danced? The rooftop? And then I left you? Alone? On the roof? By yourself? Is that the night you're talking about?"

"Yeah," He said just barely below a whisper. So sweet and so hoarse. He cleared his throat as we stared deeper into each other eyes.

"Thought so." I muttered. "Would that be all?" I paused. "Mr. Stark?" He shifted uncomfortably and picked up his cards from the table.

"That would be all, Mrs. Pricing." Tony answered.

"Let's go then." I said, straightening out my blue strapless dress and walking out the room with Tony in front of me. We walked out onto the stage and Tony made his way to the stand. James stood to the right of the stand and I stood on the left. I looked out onto the crowd and cameras flashed and blinded me but I kept a straight posture, hands behind my back.

"It's been a while since I've been in front of you," Tony began. "I think I'll stick to the cards this time." The crowd laughed at that and Tony cleared his throat. "There's been rumor that I was involved in the rooftop and the freeway but,"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark." A female's voice called out from the crowd. A thin blonde hair chick in gray dress pants and jacket raised her hand. "Do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a body guard in a suit?"

"I know that it's confusing," Tony said. "but it is one thing to question the actual story and a totally another thing to make wildly accusations that I was superhero." Damn it, Tony, you're suppose to be sticking to the cards.

"I never said your were a superhero." The woman said in a snippy tone.

"You didn't?" Tony said in a 'uh-oh' tone. "I'm just not the hero type. Clearly, with all the mistakes I've made." I looked past Tony to James and he looked back at me with a look in his eyes that told me, 'do something.' Right. I got to do everything. I stepped up to Tony's side.

"Just stick to the damn cards, Mr. Stark." I whispered in his ears.

"Right." He muttered. "Ok." He looked at his cards and started to read off of them. "The truth is," He paused. I looked at him and did not like the look on his face. He dropped his cards back onto the stand. "I am Iron Man." Oh my god. Damn it, Tony! Everyone in the room stood up and began yelling questions at Tony and the only person that didn't stand up was the blonde hair chick. Unbelievable, Tony, un-be-lie-va-ble. I can't believe. I just couldn't believe it.

"Mr. Stark, can you tell us who Iron Boy is?" A man's voice called out over the other yelling people. I held my breath and waited for Tony's answer to that.

"Um, Iron Boy's identity is going to remain a secret." He finally answered after a moment. I exhaled. Finally, he did something I asked him to do. James escorted Tony off the stage and I followed them. As soon as we were back in the room and the doors were closed, James and I turned on Tony and glared at him. Then, James changed his mind.

"You know what?" He said. "You deal with him, Amber." And with that he was gone. I didn't take my eyes off of Tony. Then, something appeared in Tony's eyes. I don't know if it was emotion or a look or what but that something just killed every last anger and frustration flame in me. I sighed.

"What the hell. Oh well, the cat's out of the bag, nothing we can do about it." I smiled at him and he smiled back.


End file.
